1. Field of the Invention
The present disclosure relates to a method for determining whether or not a patient is affected with a lung cancer. Patients which are to be the subjects of the method of the present disclosure are preferably mammals including humans.
2. Description of the Related Art
Substances that are present in large amounts in cancer cells but are either not present, or present only in small amounts in normal cells are known. Such substances are referred to as “tumor markers”. Tumor marker tests, in general, quantitatively determine a tumor marker in blood, and have been used for the purpose of aiding diagnosis of cancer, or confirming the degree of progression of cancer. As such, in order to determine the presence of a tumor marker in a patient, it is typical that a sample of blood is drawn from the patient.
Conventional tumor markers are high molecular substances such as hormones, enzymes, isozymes, or fragmented proteins. Since there are great differences among individuals in blood levels of these conventional tumor markers, usability in diagnosing cancer has been unsatisfactory due to the occurrence of false negatives and false positives.